diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-nightly.yml b/.github/workflows/release-nightly.yml
index 71ec6dae841e3..1868673f172aa 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-nightly.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-nightly.yml
@@ -55,6 +55,9 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v3
+      # fetch all commits instead of only the last as some branches are long lived and could have many between versions
+      # fetch all tags to ensure that "git describe" reports expected Gitea version, eg. v1.21.0-dev-1-g1234567
+      - run: git fetch --unshallow --quiet --tags --force
       - uses: docker/setup-qemu-action@v2
       - uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v2
       - name: Get cleaned branch name